u/krystophermalus

I mean, wasn’t Ryu always just Batman who kills?

The combat in this game is ridiculously deep. This is way deeper than the previous Ninja Gaidens. I feel like a monster in this game. Also the graphics are gorgeous. This game is underrated AF! Might be my favorite non-fps single player campaign.

So I read an article saying the Beyond links were fabricated but they are still returning to Batman. I think a possible direction would be Damien Wayne Batman in a not-quite Beyond era. Damien Wayne has a stint as the next Batman but it ends tragically somehow which sets up Terry McGinnis. This game would show how that played out.

Just for fun here’s my idea: You play as Damien Wayne, who has been trained by his father to fulfill the role of Batman as Gotham needs him yet again and Bruce is gettin old. The spitting image of Bruce people assume Damien is Bruce Wayne, though wonder how he still looks young. In reality Bruce has fled to the protection of the Justice League as the Court of Owls is active in Gotham and trying to capture him for an unknown reason. The real reason is to fulfill the prophecy of the demon Barbados which is slowly revealed.

Believing Damien to be Bruce they gather Batman’s surviving rouges gallery to hunt down Batman and capture him, but Damien sees this as a test. The Court puts their plan into motion, shutting Gotham down and trapping Batman within. Damien gets to work defeating each villain and trial they throw at him until he finally infiltrates their secret headquarters and learns about Barbados. As it turns out they didn’t need Bruce because Damien was sufficient to fulfill the prophecy and open the portal to the Dark Multiverse which summons the evil Batmans including the Batman Who Laughs. This version of the Jokerized Batman is created from an alternate reality where Batman succumbs to Joker’s blood in Arkham Knight, but instead of becoming the straight up Joker their consciousnesses merge giving birth to a Batman/Joker singular mind, as the Joker within Batman realized he could not repress Batman’s consciousness as it was too powerful so instead he found a way to merge their consciousnesses preventing Batman from sealing him within his subconscious during the fear toxic incident. Cornered Damien requests backup from the Justice League who come to Gotham to throw down with the Dark Multiverse army and Barbados. They are too late however and Damien is captured by The Batman Who Laughs. Bruce becomes Batman once again in order to join the fight and save his son. The climactic battle sees Barbados and his army retreat for now, but not without superhero deaths. Damien is left traumatized due to being tortured by the twisted version of his own father, believing he is no longer cut out to be Batman. Thus Batman settles on finding a new heir which would end up to be Terry Mcginnis in the next game Batman: Arkham Beyond.

I think the title could be Batman: Arkham Metal as it takes heavy inspiration from Justice League: Metal.

I love everything about this game but the one thing that’s driving me nuts is if I miss one little collectible I need to restart the entire mission because it won’t let you backtrack and you have to rely on autosaves exclusively.

Ragebound seems to be set after Ninja Gaiden 3, with Jo Hayabusa alive but soon to be dead, Ryu in his modern attire, etc. But it is seemingly meant to connect the modern games to the classic ones, but the classic ones just don’t fit well with the timeline. So here is my fix, a remake of the original trilogy but updated sigma style and also merged into one streamlined game:

Ragebound serves as the prequel, handling Jô Hayabusa’s death and introducing supporting characters like Kenji Mozu and Kumori. It is followed by a single new game, tentatively called Ninja Gaiden: Legacy, set between Ninja Gaiden 3 and Ninja Gaiden 4. This game picks up with Ryu as the protagonist and merges the strongest level design, structure, and villain concepts from the classic NES trilogy into one cohesive campaign. The story and enemies (such as Jaquio, Bloody Malth, and Ashtar) keep their classic names and general roles but are recontextualized with stronger ties to modern canon elements like the fiends, Black Spider Clan remnants, and Dark Dragon influence. The game builds to a climactic on-screen battle against the Dark Dragon, providing the missing third defeat referenced in Ninja Gaiden 4 and positioning Ryu as the new clan leader heading into that game.

This new game would overwrite the classic NES trilogy in the canon while also merging them into it cleanly. The 3rd offscreen Dark Dragon fight NG4 talks about would be perfectly represented here and would allow this arc to segway into NG4 with the new status quo with Jo dead and Ryu as the new Ninja Clan head.